Agriculture and environmental preservation: first results of an unparalleled analysis in Brazil.

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RESUlTS

Thinking about agricultural development in Brazil requires theoretical and spatial knowledge of three concepts that are inseparable but unmistakable: Land assignment, its occupation and use. These three concepts, which will be presented m detail, have been used in the work of territorial intelligence developed by Embrapa's team of Strategic Territorial lntelligence Group (GITE), which has a vast collection of spatial data to help synthesize and diagnose any region of Brazil.

Land Allocation

Over the last 25 years, the federal and state governments have legally allocated more than 37% of the national territory to conservation units, indigenous lands, quilombola communities and agrarian reform settlements. These numbers were stratified and categorized according to their destination, where the provision of these data being the responsibility of the competent bodies.

According to data collected in April 2017 from the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), 1,871 conservation units (PAs) occupied 154,433,280 ha, representing 18% of Brazil (including Environmental Protected Areas - APAs) or 13,1%, when we disregard the APAs. In Brazil, in most cases, PAs exclude human presence, while in Europe, Asia and the United States there

SEEDnewsespecial edition 2018

Nationalterritory showingconservationunits,

indigenouslands,quilombolacommunitiesand agrarianreform settlements area in 2017

Subtitle _ Conservation units

c::llndigenous Iands

_ Ruralsettlements

."Quilombolas" _ Military areas

DState boundaries

Proj~io)cóntuoe-"ltotft.· O....,.SlRGAS:!OOO fon!t'$ 100E:!'O10 UMA.!(:MOh) ftuw

meRASEPPlROIFP2'Ot6 CM>PIIlMSP J1If'IoeWO"~2017

may be agriculture, villages and various activities in national parks, without evoking the extensive tourist visitation.

According to the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), there were 600 indigenous lands (TIs) demarcated until April 2017, which occupied approximately 14% of the national territory, equivalent to an area of 117,956,054 ha.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (ruCN) designates asprotected areas the set of lands legally attributed both to conservation units and to traditional populations in Brazil, indigenous lands. In the national territory, protected areas total 257,257,508 ha in 2,471 territorial units covering an area equivalent to 30.2% of Brazil, which already discounts for overlaps. In comparison, the nine countries

09

12,184 areas

315,924,844 ha

37.1% of Brazil

1.871conservation units 600indigenous lands 9.349 settlements 296"quilombolas" 68 military areas

with more than 2.5 million square kilometers in the world dedicate, on average, 10% of their territories to protected areas. With more than 30% ofprotected areas (CUs + TIs), Brazil is, as it was, the world champion of environmental protection. In addition, protected areas of the country cover territories with great economic potential, which isnot the case in most other countries, where they cover inhospitable and desert areas (Australian Desert, China Desert, Siberia, Sonoran Desert and Mojave , Northern Alaska, Andean Relief, etc.).

The allocation of land extrapolates the exclusive concepts of protection. There are areas for land reform and quilombola areas. According to the National Institute ofColonization andAgrarian Reform (lNCRA), there are 9,349 agrarian settlements, of various natures and

RURAL LAND AREA IN BRAZIL

o 700 1.400

_-===-_=:::::Jlkm

~.J<IdwI"'2017

in several stages of implantation.

lhe settlements occupy 88,410,217 million hectares, or 10.4% of Brazil. According to the Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality, the 268 quilombola areas already decreed until April 2017 occupied an area of 2.6 million hectares.

lhere are still more than 2,000 military areas belonging to the Army, Navy and Air Force, located in urban and rural areas.Of these, 68 are more significant, with public forests, and amount to 2,923,701 ha or 0.3% of Brazil, according to data from the Brazilian Forest Service.

lhe geocoded data collected and made available by the GITE indicate the existence of 12,184 areas legally assigned in the categories described above, occupying a total of 315,924,844 ha, with the overlaps

removed. lhis total area corresponds

to 37.1% of the country.

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lhe map of Brazil allows us to visualize the complexity and territorial fragmentation of the current situation, illustrating the size of the territorial and land management challenge generated by legalland allocation processes. While these initiatives seek to solve land and agrarian management problems and conflicts, they generate new challenges for territorial management and governance, especially regarding the future of the nation, whether for agricultural, logistic, national security and many other issues.

In addition to the areas already allocated, there are still additional requests to create or expand conservation units, indigenous lands,

agrarian settlements and quilombola areas. There is also a need toreconcile this territorial reality with the growth of cities, with the allocation of places for food and energy generation, for the establishment, passage and expansion of logistics,

10

transportation, supply systems, storage and mining.

Land occupation While attribution

is determined by governmental instances, land occupation must be thought for the part left over, where human and productive activities are structured. lhe agricultural activities are an interesting case, being a good example of how these concepts of allocation, occupation and land use have overlaps and intersections. Within settlements and quilombolas (legally attributed areas) there are agricultural activities as there are also in the 62.9% unattributed. lhese activities related to agriculture and livestock occupy these territories, but their uses are the most diverse.

From the analyzes carried out in the recently published data of the Rural Environmental Cadaster (CAR), it was possible to verify that approximately half of Brazil is occupied by agriculture and livestock. This means that the sum of the areas of Brazilian rural properties totals about 50% of the territory. It should be noted that rural activities occupy but do not use the whole area.This is because, withi~ the properties, there are several occupancy classes and categories, some of which are destined for environmental preservation, such as permanent preservation areas,

legal reserve areas, hill

tops, sloping areas,

water and, of course,

the forest surplus.

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PRESERVED VEGETATION AREA ON RURA

L LAN

DS

Land usage

Until recently, in

Brazil, it was impossible

to estimate with

considerable precision

the use ofland. Every 10

years, the IBGE Census

makes an exhaustive

survey of land use in

Brazilian agricultural

establishments, but it is declaratory information, recorded in a questionnaire, without a precise cartographic base.

Moreover, given the spatial, temporal

and technological dynamics of

Brazilian agriculture, some of these

data are quickly outdated.

o 700 1.400

_-

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km

~SP •.lunh:ode2011

used and intended for preservation

by agriculture in rural properties

has ma de significant progress with

the advent of "CAR", which is one

of the most relevant fruits of the

new Forest Cede, Law12,651, dated

May 25th, 2012 as of April 30th,

2017, 4,104,247 of rural properties,

The possibility of updated

knowledge of the are as effectively

"

Regarding

natural vegetation,

Brazil protects and preserves

66.3% of its tenitory, being

one of the largest producers

of food in the world and still

champion of preservation.

Agriculture occupies only g%

of the country surface

.

"

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totaling 407,999,690 hectares, were

registered in the National System

of Rural Environmental Cadaster,

SICAR,under the responsibility of

the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB)of

the Ministry of Environment (MMA).

Thanks to this enormous

database, managed and made

available by the Brazilian Forest

System, the perspective of a

qualification and quantification of

the areas destined to thepreservation

of the native vegetation within the

rural properties in cartographic bases

was opened for the first time. The

"CAR" of each rural property gathers

information from 18 categories

of land use and occupation. The

download of this data, spread over

5,570 municipalities, resulted in files

reaching 180 Gigabytes. With this

complex set of geocoded data (big

data), the GITEteam has developed a

clear methodology, produced accurate

OCCUPATION AND LAND USE

IN BRAZIL*

Source: SFB;SICAR;EMBRAPA; IBGE;

MMA;FUNAI;DNIT;ANA; MPOG.

and works as a public company to disseminate these results to general and specific audiences. In this way, the methods and results are available to the whole society at https://www. cnpm.embrapa.br /projetos/ car!.

results impressed The

positively on both the environment and farmers. A total of 176,806,937 hectares of preserved vegetation were found in rural properties,

equivalent to about 20.5% of the national territory (or about 22%

when subtracted from the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Espírito Santo, which up to that time were not available on SiCARas it can be viewed onthe map.

Theseareas forthe preservation of native vegetation, registered by each rural property in SlCAR, also

represent a formaland administra tive http://store.seednews.inf.br DESTlNATED AREA FORNATIVE VEGETATION INSIDE FARMS

20.5%

13.1 %

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great importance, since it indicates that in these places the area willbe dedicated to the preservation of the environment.

In the case of Rio Grande do Sul, if we took all the properties registered and made them a single rural property, we would discover that 20%of the whole area of this rural property is dedicated to preservation (3,431,185 ha). This meets the legal

requirement for these properties, which requires that there be 20%of areas preserved by the sum of legal reserve and permanent preservation areas. This data can be seen in detail at https://www.cnpm.embrapa.br!

projetos/ car/estados/RS/rs .html. About 64% of the state area (17,335,427 ha) is occupied by agriculture. And this number will increase as more rural properties are

SEEDnewsespecial edition2018

NATIVE VEGETATION IN CONSERVATION UNITS NATIVE VEGETATION IN INDIAN LAND

13.8%

IMPROVEO PASTURES

13.2%

CROPSANO

CULJflVATEO NATlVE VEGETATION IN NOT USEO ANO FORESTRY REGISTEREO LANO

9.0%

_18.9%

CITIES, INFRAESTRUCTURE ANO OTHERS

3.5%

Others (3.5%

)

commitment to recovery and environmental conservation

undertaken by all farmers. Commitment duly registered and monitored. It is expressed in areas of permanent preservation, legal

reserves, vegetation and surplus remnants, which encompass several lacustrine and palustrine ecosystems, with their fiora, fauna and specific biodiversity. There are already more than 176 million hectares preserved throughout the country and the extension and functionalities should increase with the operationalization of the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA). Many of these preserved areas, mainly in the South and Southeast, are located in territories of highly intensified agriculture. This information is of

registered in theCAR.But it is already

possible to see how agriculture is

helping to preserve vegetation. The

maps of areas forthe preservation of

vegetation in rural properties show

a great coherepce in the patterns

of distribution, with connection

and continuity of native vegetation

formations along the hydrographic

network.

The "CAR" is a complex

instrument and a very vast database

and has opened a very wide range

of connections and possibilities for

research and analysis in territorial

intelligence. For example, it

becomes possible to cross data from

municipalities that have large coffee

production to find out how the issue

of environmental preservation in the

activity is being carried out. Other

examples could beof quantifying the

preservation in cuts of municipalities,

microregions or biomes. ln this

cross of biomes, for example, it was

verified that a great part of the rural

properties of the RSstate inserted in

Pampa did not classify their native

vegetation (native fields) as APP,RL

or as surplus vegetation, reducing the

preserved area of this biome, which is

conserved livestock for centuries.

Conclusion

s

on the allocation, use and occupation ofla

n

d

i

n

Brazil

Over the Brazilian territory,

26.7%

have their a

t

tribution, occu

p

ation and use f

o

r the protection of

vegetation in conservation units and indigenous lands. Another

18.9% is

occupied by areas of vacant land

and areas not yet registered in the CAR

.

50.7%

are engaged in agric

ul

ture an

d l

iv

e

stock, whic

h

,

ho

wever

,

use only

30.2%,

since

20.5%

are dedicated to the preserva

t

io

n of

vegeta

t

io

n

.

Acc

o

rding to data from Embrapa's Strategic

T

erritorial I

nt

e

lli

ge

n

ce Group (

GIT

E), ab

o

u

t

20%

o

f

Brazil

is

destined for the preservation of vegetation within rural propert

i

es. It

is

also estimated tha

t 1

3

.2

%

of planted pasture and about

8%

of native pasture are conserved by livestock in harmony with the na tive

environment, whether cerrado, caatinga

,

pampa, etc

.

All this gigantic agriculture in Brazil

,

with

its 240

million tons of grains, with cane

,

coffee, [ruit, vegetable and planted forests, occupies only

9%

of the country.

We pro

t

ect more than al

l

the countries of the wor

l

d in legal requir

e

men

t

s an

d

, m

o

reover, we

p

reserve

even more w

ith

i

n

the rura

l

properties. It

is

an very

imp

or

t

an

t

observ

ati

o

n

w

ith data

, maps a

nd nu

m

b

e

r

s

and that needs to be disclosed to the whole society. They are, therefore,

f

ac

t

s.

Brazil, in vegetation, protects and preserves

66.3%

of

its

territory, being one of the largest pr

o

du

c

ers

of food in the world and still champion of preservation.

The results obtained by the approach of territorial intelligence and management

on the "CAR"

will allow the identiiication

,

qualiiication, ouanti

i

ication, mapping and monitoring of land use and the

preservat

i

o

n

of vegetation in the country.

B

ut, above

al

l, t

h

ese data a

ll

ow

u

s

t

o sh

o

w the irrep

l

ac

eabl

e role

o

f

agricu

lt

u

r

e i

n th

e prese

r

vat

i

on of n

at

ive vege

t

a

ti

o

n

.

Th

ere a

r

e more

th

a

n

176

milli

o

n h

e

ct

ar

e

s

preser

ve

d

inside rural properties,

20.5%

of the country. The state of

R

io Grande do S

ul

sta

nds o

ut in t

h

ese

numb

e

r

s by

preserving ab

o

ut

20%

of

th

e vegetation o

n

the farms (

m

ore than

3.4

million hectar

e

s), even more i

f

we add

to it what

is

conserved by livestock in the

P

ampa biome.